 So, in this last session let us discuss a few points about time and stress management. Let us look at some basic principles of time management and then application of these for research. Sometimes time management is referred to as the art of doing the right things and doing things right. So, what are the right things that one must do in research these we have listed so far. Now, question is how do you do them right? So, doing things right involves the following that is first planning which involves a to-do list then prioritizing which of the things are important and urgent and then scheduling so difficult things during peak hours. Now, this art of doing things right and planning prioritizing and scheduling can be nicely illustrated with the help of an analogy. Now, imagine that you have a beaker in which you have to put sand and stone you have to fill the beaker with sand and stone and you would like to fill in as many stones and as much sand as possible. So, what is the way you would do it? Will you first put the sand and then put the stones? Well, if you did that the space between the stones because all the stones are of not of the same size and shape will be wasted. So, a better approach is you first fill in the stones which are big and then you put the sand or the smaller particles. In this manner, you can fill as much as possible within the same volume. Now, this is basically the philosophy behind doing things right, prioritizing which things to do first and which things to do in between important things. Now, we have already said sometime during our previous hours that you need a change because you need to work continuously on an idea for a long time what you need to do is occasionally you need time for refreshing. So, this refreshing things activities which help you to refresh are some small jobs routine jobs. So, which should be put in between some important activities in which you required to do lot of thinking. Let us also look at time pressure which all of us experience. This equation time pressure is a function of internal factors it is very important often we blame the external situation for time pressure, but mainly it is because of internal factor. So, the time pressure is proportional to our resistance to what we are doing the internal factors are improper attitudes and confusion about goals and values. So, if you do not like something then the time pressure on you will be more for doing the job also if you are not approaching with the right attitude. So, what is the right attitude we will give some hints towards the end of this lecture. Now, in research we cannot say that go and discover the second law of thermodynamics in the afternoon you cannot set aside time for generating ideas and so on specific times of the day, but if we are able to arrange our schedule so as to set aside time for thinking and experimenting we put ourselves in the way of discovering something. So, working out a new idea requires much routine work and this part of an investigation and to this part of an investigation we can apply efficiency methods. So, as far as thinking about new ideas finding problems finding solutions and so on right you cannot say that this can will be done at in this time of the day. So, you must be continuously thinking about it right more than this you cannot say much, but supposing you have found a problem and you also got an idea of how to go about solving it then there is lot of routine work to be done before you get the results. Now, for this routine work you can apply the so called efficiency methods so scheduling and so on that we discussed just now the time management principles. See one important quotation make hay while the sun shines so moment you get an idea right you must immediately start working on it and try to finish the job this is very important this is what is the meaning of make hay while the sun shines. Many times what happens with students is they get an idea and then they are thrilled that we have got an idea and then they want to do several other things because they are already excited and they feel you know they have already achieved something significant and after sometime they start working on it and then finishing it right thinking that you know now it is only a matter of time you just work on it sometime and then it will be over no that is not correct you are writing a paper do not go on writing a paper for months right you start writing a paper when your idea is sufficiently clear and you have got some significant results you just spend all your time in writing up ok that is the way you should work this is what is the meaning of make hay while the sun shines and after the thing is done if you want a break you can take a break even a longer break right but do not think of working only for 2-3 hours a day that kind of thing is not good set deadlines they motivate and create the necessary pressure to get work so you should have deadlines supposing I started writing a paper you decide after 15 days I will submit it right that is my deadline so this sort of deadlines should be there and this is where the supervisor also can help a few points about stress so stress and fatigue dull our faculties and prevent us from doing our best this is one fact but there is also another fact stress is not always back example this course is an outcome of stress so for example it is because I underwent stress during my PhD I thought something should be done to reduce the stress and so you know I thought I should be doing some course like this few people work without pressure so some amount of stress or pressure is good for learning but too much is not good now what are the sources of stress for research scholars first important source of stress is monotony and repetitiveness of concentrating on the same idea for an extended period of time we have said this any number of times this is the main characteristic of research so solution is alternate working standing sitting moving and reading to keep fresh then major source of stress is related to relationships strain relation between guide and the student is another major source of stress so this one point we will discuss in little bit detail right how to avoid or minimize the strain criticism another source of stress that research scholar encounters is when a paper is rejected very first paper when it is rejected then you are down okay this is one example of criticism or you are doing something very enthusiastically and you have spent three or four months and at the end of that you meet somebody who says hey this is not important at all why are you spending so much time on this this kind of situation research scholars encounter often so they must learn to deal with criticism is very very important and you should not get unduly perturbed or disturbed because of criticism it affects your relationships also in fact studies have shown how authors respond to reaction there are books which have come out with all these facts about research and teaching right so editors experiences in doing research then compilation of how authors respond to reaction of papers and so on so they have found no author is happy with reaction right it is always the case number one but number two very interesting thing all authors feel that the comments of reviewers negative comments of reviewers are unfair the first time when they see the reaction or the negative comment they feel it is unfair they all most of the authors have recorded that this is what third important thing but when they take a look at the review after a few days then they see yeah there may be some point in you know what the reviewer is saying and when they look at the review after 15 days or a month then they feel yeah the reviewer is right okay he has a point and only then you start working on it so that is why it is suggested whenever you get a review particularly negative one right don't go about trying to write an answer or response immediately because you will not be in a state to see things objectively this is what is the way you should deal with a criticism okay I mean don't try to respond to it immediately with an impulse so this is the point you give some time and then you develop a response deadline set by supervisor this is one more source of stress but then as we have said deadlines are important because otherwise you won't work cyclical changes in emotional states you know when you have prolonged working on the same thing and of course this last thing is also important people get involved in romantic affairs this this is based on research right so best avoid it don't want to discuss further on it because as a guide people will be interested in the research output whatever may be the interest of the students so let us look at the phases in which a research scholar goes through lack of awareness of psychological phases of PhD is one more reason for the stress so here a few things have been listed based on research on a large number of PhD students these are the stages in which the students broadly undergo okay so first enthusiasm right you have just joined research program and all very enthusiastic you want to do some great work and so on you will do this you will do that and all but then after some time as we have discussed you find things are not working self-doubt whether I don't know whether I'm cut out for research right how is it that simple things I don't seem to be able to do and so on therefore it results in isolation moment you get into self-doubt and this kind of things difficulties then you tend to isolate okay because you may not like to tell this to other people that you know I feel somehow that I don't feel I'm cut out for research and so on so negative emotions if you get into but then you come out of isolation because you know I mean you have to do a PhD and then you develop interest in work so this is like a cyclical change right this is how it happens you will also develop increasing interest in work because after all if you work in something for some time beyond a certain cutoff period you will start getting some results right if you press go on if you just determination that is why we have emphasized several times that determination is the very very important thing for research right you must persist and as you persist sometime you will start getting results so that is how then you develop interest in the work and as your work is progressing then you do not meet your supervisor very often so reduction of dependence on supervisor but when you do it for very long time maybe three years and so on because you have been doing the same thing a boredom sets in so it is found that towards the end of the PhD boredom frustration and a job to be somehow finished is the kind of feeling that people get even those who join research with great enthusiasm so these things if you find yourself undergoing you should not feel that you are unique this is what most people experience so if you know this then your stress levels hopefully will be lower now we have said that interpersonal relations is one more reason for stress so look at that point for a few minutes you know here is a quotation Bambai ki bheed mein har aagmi akela hai right there is a statement by a research scholar very interesting statement I work alone in a lab full of people all working alone in fact all of us have seen this in among our own students I have seen examples of students who work on adjacent computers for months but they will not know what the other person is do each will not know what the other person is doing they will go for tea sometimes they will chat but not about research research is an intensive process which requires the development of social apart from academic skills so this point we must remember now let us discuss in detail the relation between guide and student there should be a match between the natures of the scholar and the guide and an agreement on how to work now what are the kind of mismatches which can be present example the student is independent minded he wants to learn things by himself and wants time for trial and error okay this is the nature of the student suppose whereas the guides nature is that at frequent intervals he would like to see whether there is any progress or not now this is an example of a mismatch so the guide will keep asking the student every week what is happening tell me right and student is not able to tell then the guide says you do this is what you do right and show me next time when you come you please show me this where the student is already involved in something on his own and he feels he wants to test out his ideas right and he is not able to shift his attention and do what the guide says so this is one kind of mismatch the reverse kind where the guide would like to give freedom to the student to develop on his or on her own trial and error and then come up with ideas and so on and discuss only after the idea has developed up to some point okay so the guide expects that the student work a lot on one so on and only after things have developed up to some point then only you know he would like to have discussion but the students nature is that he prefers an arrangement where the student guide tells him sir you tell me give me short you know pieces of small pieces of work right and I will show you every week right next week you do this come with this prepare this figure come with this take these readings you know come back to me with this these are kind of thing the student is very happy about it doesn't want to do and think everything on one's own and trial and error and so on is frightening for the student this is another nature of the student so these are the mismatch so these kind of mismatches create the problem so just as it is important for the guide to understand the nature of the student so this itself will take some time right the student also should make effort to understand the guide this is very very important okay now that is where the second point some want to guide people we are talking about the nature of the guide some guides want to guide people to become independent researchers whereas others want them as efficient research assistants in particular nowadays when there is this trend for building large groups okay so guide has a large number of students and many projects to work on in all these cases the projects have some deadlines okay so guide may prefer to have students who carry out whatever he wants right so he wants people as efficient research assistants extension right their hands for the guide because you would like to see that the project you know moves to some moves at a proper pace so you should see if you are in environment where this is the picture right where the guide is involved in a lot of projects and so on then it is likely that the guide would be happier if you act like a good research assistant rather than be too independent minded okay on the other hand if you see some guide with few students then it is likely that the guide is expecting the students to work on one so on okay and if the guide is not working on too many projects and so on projects by projects I mean you apply it to the sponsoring agency and the sponsoring agency gives you money and then you have to show some results in some time frame right this is a working project so this you must see the environment and see your guide and avoid this kind of you know problems the mismatches so some adjustment will have to be made from your side also now here an important thing to note is that it is not necessary that you should do earth shaking research in PhD itself this can be a problem with many students who are very enthusiastic right want to do great work they are inspired by you know instant did something earth shaking Newton did this and so on why not I also be like that it is very good a spirit but what you should notice for example the best of work of Einstein didn't happen during his PhD the work for which he is known for many such examples can be given right Karl Marx is known for his work that's capital that is not his PhD thesis that he has done later so this is an important point to note just because your PhD is not very earth shaking doesn't mean that that is the you know ultimate that you can do see later on you can flower and you can do very good work this is also an important point that the student should note so a few points about ethics research like all good things in life is never smooth sailing and this is where the problem is there so when things are not smooth sailing you want to take shortcuts okay this where unethical conduct is likely so I am discussing the only the key areas where people behave unethically report observation truthfully this is one area where many people have a tendency to fudge in fact I can give a quote and experience of my own once I asked my student to take several measurements to take those measurements he spent about a month and then I asked him to plot those readings and come to me with you know the plots I found that the plots look very regular I was really surprised I mean how can so many readings you know be regular if all show such a regular pattern then when I asked him he said no sir actually several points were not fitting into this picture so I simply removed them okay so there's something very common or people try to you know take readings again and again until things fit into a pattern right so you take a set of readings you know it's not good so you go on taking more readings okay now here I am not saying that you should not perfect your experiment in the beginning you may have an apparatus which is not giving you readings properly and so on that is different you know improving the experiment is not what I am talking about but after all we have seen that every measurement has random and systematic errors so if you think that you will make the error 0 this is not possible you can minimize errors but you must report readings truthfully because as we have seen in some case the fact that the behavior is not regular itself is a finding right under some situations you are not able to predict the behavior this itself is a finding so this is very important plegiarism this is the next important unethical conduct people do not cite references they do not cite from where they have got the ideas and now it is the main thing is the project reports are simply cut paste we have seen so many such instances in our own department where students have been asked to rewrite their whole thesis okay because it was simply cut and paste I am not talking about phd thesis mtech ms and so on at that stage but in institutions other than IIT they have seen even phd thesis being prepared like that just from different sources you take a put it all together and then you know it becomes so this is simply not acceptable in fact nowadays some journals that at least I review for have clearly given instructions to reviewers that one of the reasons for rejection of papers is improper references okay and they have also brought it out in editorials that one of the criteria for giving an award for a paper would be proper referencing okay and one of the reasons for acceptance also is proper if you referencing is not proper the paper can be rejected then so you must give credit to co-workers and authorship and acknowledgement this is very important now a few points about authorship what should be the ordering of the authors in a paper although some differences of views exist by and large it is accepted that whoever is a first author is a primary contributor in some cases the last author is regarded as the person leading the group if there are several authors then the last author is supposed to be one who is kind of leading the group the senior most author now it is not necessary that the student's name should always come first in the publication this is a student should know right so it is not like the research work is not like a first or second standard children doing their project most of these projects are done by the mothers or fathers right the first and second standard students these are well known the student is just sitting there so the teacher gives a project this is to be done the you take the child and go and buy things and all bring cut paste do all that and then it is done the student is the son or the daughter is very happy in the project is done okay this is what it happens at first or second but this is not the way a research is to be done right because by that time you are supposed to be doing things on your own you are responsible for what is being done so unless you have really made a contribution significantly it is not necessary that your name should come first in the paper because progressively as we have said the research education blurs a distinction between the mentor and the student in that situation the ordering of the authorship authors should correctly reflect the relative contributions what are the problems if this is not followed now supposing a student has not made really good contributions but he has several papers with first author now it will create an impression that the student is really good and he has done the entire work based on this he may be given a position somewhere but unfortunately that is not his capability now he will build a group in which he may encounter some juniors who are much capable than he is and now this is there is going to a problem okay the reverse is also true if the student has done a lot of work but if the guide is not acknowledging it properly and guide puts a name first then of course we know the impact the student will get demotivated and he will not pursue research okay so that is the other side so this authorship and so on it is very important to acknowledge the contributions properly so now we have a few concluding remarks no procedure technique skill etc which is relevant to your thesis should be exercised by you there for the first time I am repeating what I have said earlier you should have practiced it beforehand on a non-thesis exercise which is therefore going to be less stressful and allow you greater learning so writing oral presentation all these things you must practice and also we are given also various methods of improving your thinking so you can be doing all those things right what are the kind of things you should read I have given you some some hints these are what kind of things you must be reading and also you should be periodically doing some exercises mental exercises and so on you find puzzles and things like that it helps to keep your mind agile persistence and the ability to manage boredom and frustration is very important for PhD work skills aren't enough it is your attitude that makes a difference we made this point in the sources of stress improper attitude so what is the right attitude first important thing if you can't do what you like like what you do if you can't do what you like you like what you do this is possible okay follow no one but learn from everyone and acknowledge it to this is a very nice guiding principle for research scholars if you want to do something new you cannot be a follower but at the same time it is not as though whatever you have thought of you have thought of in vacuum as we pointed out in our discussion also that you know you are standing on other shoulders which means you are learning from others though you may not be following others right you may be learning you are learning from not you may be you are learning from others so you should be willing to learn from everyone though you may not follow any single person or a single way of doing things and you must also acknowledge it that you have learned okay from others unhappiness is often caused by unjust comparison what are the examples of unjust comparison in the context of research my friend has got a publication within the first year but even two years down the line I don't have a publication okay so I start comparing then I feel maybe I think I should have seen my student my friend he is doing theoretical work right so I think this must be the problem with all experimental work that you know it takes a longer time I think I should not have taken experimental work I should have done theoretical work this is not a correct comparison because even in theoretical work people may not be able to get a publication very soon and the other way also it can happen so you can find you may find that someone who is doing experimental work the apparatus is set up by a previous student and so on and your job is to get readings and you may get a publication very soon but your friend doesn't get a publication as we have said right in the beginning the research is full of uncertainty this is nature of research okay so you should be careful in comparison you also cannot compare number of papers that x has written for his PhD and number of papers that you have got okay this is also not a good comparison particularly outputs due in short durations are not good guides for comparison okay good measures of comparison so if you take what has a person done over a period of ten years maybe loosely you know it is possible to compare but even then the areas different people are working on or different the problems that people are addressing are different we have said this had in the beginning so to be careful while comparing with others then repeated failures this is a statement of an inventor results why man I have got lots of results if I find ten thousand ways something won't work I haven't failed I'm not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is just one more step forward if you are repeatedly encountering failures in fact it means you are progressing towards the correct solution many times we avoid asking questions or doubts when you ask a foolish question you remain a fool for a few minutes if you do not ask it you remain a fool forever okay so it is your choice it is always good to ask questions whenever they arise in your mind finally be a Vidyarthi and not a Pariksarthi you know who is a Pariksarthi a person who works only for the exams a day before the exams and many students in fact they feel they are very smart that by working just one day before the exam they are scoring very high marks whereas they find someone else logging it out and not scoring yeah right so you look up on them and then you can laugh at them and so on but this kind of an attitude doesn't work in research so unless you are really a Vidyarthi that is your after the knowledge you cannot do good research the importance of teaching for research scholars if they involve in some teaching tutorial this kind of activity so student completes one fourth of his learning when he hears his teacher half of his learning many questions his teacher to clear his doubts three fourth of the learning when he reflects himself on the knowledge he has gained and finally his learning is complete when he teaches what he has learned himself to others so research scholars will benefit a lot if they get involved in teaching and tutorial and so on okay they should not regard these activities as something which are diversions from their research they will complement their efforts now a few pitfalls first pitfall infatuation in a topic without adequate background next pitfall systematic step-by-step approach of completing all coursework first then doing the literature survey and then embarking on problem finding and formulation many times research scholars think this is a step-by-step process first I want to complete all my course work right so I don't bother about the problem that I am going to work on and so on then there is some phase in which I do extensive reading and only reading so you are seen in the library and what are you doing I am doing literature survey that's all and then you start doing your research this is not the way it works actually you should be interested in finding a problem and thinking about what kind of problem you will pursue for research and so on from day one when you have registered for PhD simultaneously you are doing the coursework so you are doing coursework you are doing literature survey for finding a problem and so on you are thinking about your research along with the coursework this is the correct approach third pitfall I have if I have stumbled upon a good problem by God's or guides grace early in my research rather than rushing into a solution and early thesis submission I can take time off to develop my other abilities and utilize the four years of my research time fruitfully so many times it so happens that some student finds that he has got some early success and then he feels that you know I can do many other things become secretary of my hostel right do so many things but then it is important to note if you lose momentum it is very difficult to again regain it right it becomes very difficult so one should not do this kind of things another pitfall in a research program no one sets your agenda everything you do is open-ended that means you can easily spend too much time on any task you start especially if stubborn perfectionism or an inferiority complex leads you to feel that your work is never good enough or if you are subconsciously trying to put off that scary next phase of your research so sometimes there are students you know want things to be done perfectly so the you end up spending a lot of time on trying to achieve 100% right perfection but actually there is nothing like that so this is where your guide can help in fact these are the places where the guide is really supposed to help so if the guide tells you look when don't spend so much time on this right you take the advice so I have discussed this point already an urge to do earthshaking research in PhD okay I am I visited under pitfall so this is to point out the other side of it I am not trying to say that you know you should not have a desire to do great work that is not what we are saying what we are saying is if you find that things are not moving very well for you because you have hit upon a very big problem then you should not get disappointed if you have to water down the thing a little bit and this is very again your guide can help this is the point that we are trying to make here we are not questing the urge itself for doing earthshaking research we are saying that if you want to do it during the PhD itself it may not happen because it is a time-bound program and so on so you must be aware of these limitations you can always do great research after your PhD and finally taking up a job before this is submission see because as we have listed the psychological phases in which your student undergoes towards the end you know you are feeling frustrated and so on and you want to finish it but sometimes what happens is even before finishing you take up a job and you think that you know you take up a job and you will go there and you know then you will write your thesis it does not happen like that so you should complete your thesis only after you have submitted your thesis you should take up a job or you plan in such a way that you will submit your thesis before you take up a job right so last advice is get started early on carry out a small project with definite deadlines it is important to get results the get results is highlighted there it is important to get results even if not original in the beginning getting results even by repeating others work boost your self confidence so many times students are not willing to do this okay they think they will only work on something original that is why they have joined research yes that is true but that is what is the end of the PhD right this ultimate culmination of the PhD is that you would have done original work but if you want to get started it is very important to get results in the beginning so this is important so during research the feelings of exploration excitement challenge involvement and passion are frequent and one gets an enormous feeling of achievement on the world of a research degree research makes you are independent and organized thinker a good communicator and stress time manager so with this quotation we will end the course do not follow where the path may lead go instead where there is no path this is what Ralph Emerson said so that is a spirit of research